There
are a lot of things that we didn’t have when I was a child and one of
them was fast food; all we ever had was slow food.Perhaps if we still had more slow food, people would learn how to
wait and there wouldn’t be such a thing as road rage because at least
half of the people on the highway would be at home or in ordinary
restaurants patiently waiting for their slow food.

The
fast food chains have captivated the children with their slogans and
special meals designed just for kids with a toy thrown in for further
enticement. It would be nice if children today could recite the golden
rule, “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you”, as
quickly as they can pick out the golden arches from a mile away.

Just
the other day I was in a hurry so I pulled my car through the drive
through lane of a fast food restaurant.I was simply thinking about just getting a quick sandwich.I pushed the button on the menu board, and “the voice” began
speaking.I tried hard to
decipher what was being said from the rapid spiel of obviously memorized
words but it was very difficult to interpret.

Finally,
I did manage to place my order when suddenly “the voice”, sounding
something like a hysterical chipmunk, frantically exclaimed,
“Woonyulakfriswittat?” After asking for a repeat three or four times,
I finally understood that she was saying, “Would you like fries with
that?”At this point,
after I replied in the negative, I thought I would get my food and leave,
but no, she wasn’t finished with me yet.

Next,
she wanted to know if I wanted my meal “super sized”, which seemed to
mean that I would get larger portions (for a price) and a soft drink in a
gallon bucket. I wondered if the super sized food came with a warning
label stating, “The surgeon general has determined that super sizing may
super size your body and cause your arteries to slam shut.”I explained that I didn’t want anything super sized unless they
could do something about my bank account.At this point, I just wanted to scream, “Please, can I just have
my chicken nuggets so I can go home!”

By
the way, take
it from me; do not mention the word, “diet”. If you do, you will
be offered the latest low-carb, low-fat meal that consists of a wilted
lettuce leaf with a paper-thin slice of something that vaguely
resembles meat.Upon
receiving this wrapped concoction, you realize that you could have made
your own diet fast food at home in five seconds at a total cost of twenty
cents instead of $3.60.

Also,
parents today drive away with the kids fighting over the toys in their
“Happy Meals” and dumping sticky soft drinks all over the car.
The children only consume two bites of food because they are only
interested in their free toy.In
addition, they manage to get most of the food all over themselves and the
car, which in turn causes parents to lose their cool as they scarf down
their own food that has quickly evolved into a “Cranky Meal.”
A few minutes later, parents end up hunting for the Tums.

Fast
food is not just assigned to the drive-through restaurant.If you want to have fast food and just stay home for the
evening, never fear, just check out the frozen food section of the grocery
store.You can bring home and
thaw out or nuke a complete meal and you won’t have to worry about the
kids fighting over the toys from the fast food restaurants.Instead, they can fight over who gets to open the pudding six pack
and you can hear them whine to eat it now because the frozen lasagna
hasn't finished heating up yet.

It
is interesting that these days most people have a kitchen full of the
latest appliances, yet they are only used on rare occasions such as
Thanksgiving because the rest of the time everyone is eating fast food.

There
are a variety of appliances in the average kitchen these days from bread
machines to pizza bakers.It
seems like we could surely come up with an “all in one” appliance.Perhaps that is what our grandmothers possessed in that antiquated
appliance known as “the cook stove.”It seems I remember Grandma making coffee, tea, bread, grilled
meat, and a variety of other things on that one appliance without the need
of a separate machine for each item.Grandma’s trash compactor consisted of smashing cans with
the feet, dishwashers were you and your siblings, and garbage disposals
were found barking outside the door or in the barn lot.

In
some ways life is a lot easier now but in other ways we’ve lost
something in not gathering around the kitchen table together with prayer
and thanksgiving as often as we should.This is where children learn to help and memories are made even if
the food isn’t made entirely from scratch.

It
is nice to share a meal without drive through windows or the interruptions
of the world around us, so
I think I’ll give it a try and trudge over to the microwave and nuke a
couple of hotdogs.Hey,
it’s got to be easier to wipe off the kitchen table than to dig French
fries out of that little space between the car door’s window ledge and
the window.